A Tight Battle for the Top Step at the 2022 Beachside Mixer
Gorilla Health Athletes Jake Standen and Darcy Hancock joined forces as in the recent Beachside Mixer hosted by CrossFit Tannum Sands. Over 2 days, teams took on a wide range of events including the marquee Elimination Wade and Peddle Paddle held on the shores of Tannum Sands.
Taking out a total of five event wins over eight scored workouts across three locations, the CQ Boyzz (hey, we didn't pick the team name!) were edged out on the final day of competition by only a single point to CrossFit Harvey Bay. For Standen and Hancock, both top 10 finishers at this year’s Torian Pro, it was a chance to combine forces and work together in a team environment, representing their affiliate CrossFit CQ.
Jake Standen - a perennial Gorilla Health athlete- is one of the most recognizable faces hailing from Central Queensland. Proud Rocky resident, Standen has been a consistent top 100 finisher in Australia since 2018, and finished a career-best 9th at this year’s Torian Pro.
'Darcy and I decided to mix it up and hit the Mixer (in a pairing) on the weekend which was heaps of fun. Sound performances inside the gym which we were happy with – if anything we need to tighten up our surf rescue board practice as we’re both big boys’ he laughed.
'It actually excites me (to get to do more outdoor events) a bit more because there’s stuff outside the gym that we don’t train day to day, and we can work on in the warmer months coming up'
'All in all a super fun comp down in Tannum, happy with our in-gym events and a lot learned from those outside too'.
Darcy Hancock blew onto the scene in 2022 after a stellar Open and Quarterfinals performance, punching his ticket to the Torian Pro. Despite being a relative newcomer to the world of competitive CrossFit, Darcy kept a cool head amongst a tight field to help secure the second placing at the Mixer.
'We competed at the Beachside Mixer, a really fun two-day comp which has both in the gym workouts and a couple of workouts at the beach. Plenty of lessons learned at the beach and room for improvement there'.
'(We) Also got to test out the new Peak 9 shorts which were great! It was good to have a pair of shorts fit the legs comfortably in a big range of workouts'.
One of the Day 1 highlights was the gruelling Demogorgan workout which the boys took out the W in a very tight race against the Hervey Bay contingent.
'The sandbag workout was probably my favourite of the event, really fast paced and a good race between the teams to wrap up the day'.
While Coach Sean O'Neill couldn't be at the Mixer, he had nothing but praise for the CrossFit CQ athletes across the board.
'CFCQ was extremely well represented by all of our athletes competing. We look for pursuit of progression and believe that all of our athletes acheived exactly that across the weekend.
'Credit to Reede and CrossFit Tannum Sands for hosting a fantastic event, and putting together a holistic test for the competitors. And shout out to Gorilla Health for their constant support of grassroots Crossfit as too - you don't make Games without grassroots first'.
Gorilla Health are proud sponsors of the Beachside Mixer and would like to thank CrossFit Tannum Sands for hosting a great competition over another year.